1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a golf tee holding apparatus and more particularly to a golf tee holding apparatus that is designed and configured to be removably secured to a conventional golf bag, and that will enable the release of one golf tee at a time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Golfing can be an exciting and exhilarating sport, and one which requires patience, skill, concentration and accuracy. To successfully play the sport one must have the appropriate equipment and equipment which is accessible. Generally, golf bags are used to maintain the necessary clubs and can include accessory pockets on the exterior side, or even inside, so as to provide a means of maintaining other components, such as, but not limited to tees, balls, towel, umbrella, or the like, needed for completing a round of golf.
Typically, the accessory pockets are designed so that one must completely open the pocket in order to retrieve a particular item. An example of a golf bag is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,496, issued to Nelson. This conventional golf bag includes a side pocket having a pair of zippers. Each zipper, when opened, will expose a compartment that can be used for storage. Though a good method of maintaining items, this type of pocket provides a single means of removing items stored therein. This single means may be annoying when it is desirable to remove small items such as golf tees, golf balls or the like.
Other apparatus have been designed which address a particular need. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,839 there is disclosed a golf tee holder. This apparatus includes a plurality of hollow sleeve members having a first end and a second end. The first ends are secured to each other and the second end receives the a single tee. Though substantially efficiently, the means of inserting tees can be time consuming. In addition the constant use may cause the pliable material to stretch and inherently not enable the hollow sleeve to successfully maintain the particular tee within the desired sleeve.
Yet another tee holding device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,360,170 issued to Scannell et al. In this patent there is disclosed a hollow cylindrical body member fabricated from a resilient plastic material. Extending through the circumfercial sidewall of the hollow cylindrical body member is a plurality of openings. These openings are structured so as to receive tees, individually. This will allow for the user to insert and remove tees one-at-a-time. This device, like the previous ones, do address a particular need, but due to its compact placement of the tees it appears that one may accidentally remove a plurality of tees, as oppose to one. Insertion of the tees may be difficult to achieve, especially for the elderly and those with limited dexterity. Further, due to the resilient nature of the plastic, like with the previous patents, after continuous and constant use, the openings may inherently stretch, and prevent the apparatus from maintaining any tees, which is an undesired and unintended situation.
Accordingly, it is seen that there is a need for an apparatus designed and configured to maintain golf tees. The device should be structure so as to have a means of inserting the tees within the apparatus a second means for removing the tees, singularly, easily and efficiently. This device should be compact in size and optionally be adapted to be removably secured to a conventional golf bag. Ideally, this apparatus should also be structured so as to allow for removal of items on one surface and offer the option of placing an indicia, such as a logo, advertisement, in individual's initials, or the like on the opposite surface.
As will be seen, the present invention achieves its intended purposes, objectives and advantages, by accomplishing the needs as identified above, through a new, useful and unobvious combination of component elements, which is simple to use, with the utilization of a minimum number of functioning parts, at a reasonable cost to manufacture, assemble, test and by employing only readily available material.